MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – May 12, 2000 – Google announced today it has won a Webby Award-the online industry’s highest and most prestigious honor-in the category of Best Technical Achievement. Google’s highly praised search destination site was among five websites vying for the prestigious award at the 4th Annual Webby Award Ceremony held last night in San Francisco.

Google also won the Webby People’s Voice Award in the Technical Achievement category, chosen by more than 134,000 individual Internet users, who registered to vote at the Webby Awards site. It was one of eight sites to earn the dual accolades.

Websites were selected and judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, an organization whose mission is to foster the creative, technical and professional progress of online media. Awards were based on content, design, navigation, functionality and overall user experience.

"We’re thrilled and honored to have our work recognized by the Academy and our fanatical and hugely loyal Google users," said Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and chief executive officer. "This Webby Award reaffirms that users do notice the difference in the elegance and effectiveness of our search technology. We’ll continue to remain focused on delivering the best technology and search experience to our users worldwide."

"We love you, Google users," said Sergey Brin, Google’s cofounder and president. "We want to thank all our loyal Google fans who voted for us. They are the most fun and spirited in all of cyberspace. Their continued support and enthusiasm has helped to fuel Google’s phenomenal month over month traffic growth."

Google was pioneered by Page and Brin to address the growing frustration of searching for information on the Internet. Launched as a beta site in September 1998, Google went live as a commercial website a year later. Since its debut, use of the search engine has spread virally across the Internet, primarily through word-of-mouth recommendations. Google has developed a rapidly growing base of loyal users worldwide and the company’s success continues to grow with large monthly increases in website traffic, industry awards, and happy users.

About Google Inc.

Google Inc. exists to provide the best Internet search experience, and accomplishes this for millions of users daily by delivering a powerful, fast, and easy-to-use search service for finding the most relevant information. Google has received numerous industry awards for its technological innovations, including "Best Search Engine on the Internet" from Yahoo! Internet Life. Google recently was ranked No. 1 in user satisfaction and loyalty in a leading independent research firm’s Search & Portal Site Tracking Study, with 97 percent of users surveyed indicating they would recommend Google to a friend. A growing number of companies, including Netscape and The Washington Post, rely on Google to power search on their websites. A privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif., Google’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. For the information you need, visit www.google.com.

The Webby Awards

Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by Entertainment Weekly, the Webby Awards are the leading creative honors for digital media. Nominees and winners are chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Balloting is audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. For a complete list of the winners, visit www.webbyawards.com.

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